The nation’s second-largest school system kicks off a fresh year Tuesday with dozens of first-time programs to spur student achievement and recapture enrollment. But not everything new at L.A. Unified was planned, including recent leadership turnover at the top. As for details of plans to deal with intractable problems, including deficit spending and lagging achievement, they haven’t yet been publicly laid out. This year’s additions include dozens of magnet schools and language programs developed over the last two years under former Supt. Michelle King. By Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times

At its next regular meeting, the Los Angeles Board of Education will consider holding an election in March to fill the vacancy left by the resignation of Ref Rodriguez. Rodriguez, 47, who represented the school system’s District 5, stepped down July 23 after pleading guilty to one felony and three misdemeanors related to political money laundering.

School board President Monica Garcia and Vice President Nick Melvoin proposed the March election in a statement released Friday. “As elected board members, our collective work is to ensure that the students, families, employees and all stakeholders of the school communities of Board District 5 are fully represented and receive uninterrupted services and support from L.A. Unified,” Garcia and Melvoin wrote. By Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times

California needs a statewide system that tracks student performance from pre-school to college and beyond, several experts and lawmakers said at a state Senate hearing on Tuesday.

The state, which trails most states in providing such a system, needs to be able to answer questions about education quality and how students progress from K-12 to college and the workforce, speakers said.

The current information available is “all very disconnected, and there are gaps,” said Sen. Steven Glazer (D-Orinda), who conducted the hearing as the chair of the Select Committee on Student Success. Educators and the public do not have data that “in my view greatly improve students’ performance and their ultimate employment.”

Gov. Jerry Brown appointed his finance director as a University of California regent Monday, and three others to the powerful higher education governing board — including a union leader with the Service Employees International Union. Brown named Michael Cohen, 45, of Sacramento, his state Department of Finance director since 2013. Cohen has also been a budget executive with the department and has held jobs with the state’s Legislative Analyst’s office. He has registered no party preference. For years, Brown has clashed with the regents over finances. While the regents have consistently threatened to raise tuition if increases in state funding were not forthcoming, Brown has succeeded in keeping tuition flat in exchange for small increases in state funding tied to inflation. Cohen’s appointment appears to be an effort to install a like-minded thinker onto the board. By Nanette Asimov, San Francisco Chronicle

If you went to a Los Angeles Unified middle- or high school in the last two decades, chances are you remember being “wanded.” Since 1993, staff in LAUSD schools have been searching students, at random, every day, for weapons and drugs. The administrator conducts the search with a handheld metal detector wand — like those often seen at concerts and stadiums — hence the nickname for the district’s random search policy: “wanding.” L.A.’s chief attorney Mike Feuer wants that practice to end. A blue ribbon panel on school safety he convened released its final recommendations to improve safety in LAUSD schools on Monday. By Kyle Stokes,Laist